Inspiration: A good plan...

A good plan executed right now is far better than a perfect plan executed next week.—General George S Patton, United States Army.

There’s a concept in the military known as “commander’s intent.” Basically the idea is to focus on the goals, the purpose of the operation, and key tasks to accomplish. In the old days, product leaders tried for perfection, anticipating all eventualities. That’s why it took so long to create a marketing plan or a product plan. Nowadays as we all try to be lean and agile, you’re better off making a rough plan and relying on your team members’ judgment. Give them goals. Provide them with stories about users and buyers, and let ‘em run.

There's doing it right, and there's doing it perfectly. You want to focus on the former and not the latter.

About Steve Johnson

Steve Johnson is a product management process coach, author, speaker, and advisor. His approach is based on the belief that minimal process and simple templates result in a nimble product marketing and management team. Before founding Under10, Steve was a Pragmatic Marketing instructor for over 15 years and personally trained thousands of product managers and hundreds of company senior executive teams. Learn more at www.under10playbook.com

In his spare time, Steve enjoys making music, and has an album available on iTunes. Check out Steve’s music at notExactlySteve.com